Leading P1 of Thin Air . This...

Leading P1 of Thin Air . This...

Leading P1 of Thin Air. This is the only trad pitch of the route - a thin crack (too thin for my fingers) in the blue/green Alien range. The small roof is easier to pull than it looks (.7 - .8). The crux of this pitch (and the whole route IMHO) is the thin 5.8 face in the first 25 feet. This trad pitch can be avoided by doing a 5.9 bolted line 20 feet to the right, called Suck My Kiss (Sept. 18, 2004).
rpc
on Sep 20, 2004 4:43 pm
Image ID: 70386

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M and N Denyer

M and N Denyer - Sep 23, 2004 12:11 pm - Hasn't voted

Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Hey Radek. Glad to hear that you and Shirley did "Thin Air and the upper two pitches. Those upper two pitches really are a lot of fun. I remember the initial moves off of the belays stations at the top of pitch 1 and 2 being very fun and reachy--definitely harder than 5.8 for those of us that are average height.



Historically, I think the upper pitches are considered a continuation of "Suck my Kiss"--the 5.9 bolted route that starts, as you said to the right of "Thin Air." So, did you give the first pitch of "Suck my Kiss" a go? It is a great pitch with the crux coming just several moves of the ground. While the traverse move out left is committing and a bit freaky, it is solid and quite fun. I think you would really enjoy it. Hope all is well. --Natasha

rpc

rpc - Sep 23, 2004 12:44 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Hey Natasha,

How did you guys enjoy Austria/UK (Brian mentioned that you guys went end of August I think?)? Sounds like a really nice change of scenery. When did you get back (as you probably noticed, we're having an early intro. to winter weather this year......what a pain!!!!).



Thank you. You're right - it's not really clear to me that these uppper pitches are Thin Air - they might be part of Suck My Kiss route. We did not try this latter one - still have memories of that opening move kicking my butt when we tried it behind you guys a year and a half ago :) You're right - these opening moves on P2 and 3 were interesting. I thought that they were easier than 10a (since I could actually do them :) but I think it's all very much dependent on the reach (reach I DO have....skill, not so much !!)

radek



PS Awsome page on the Green Giant Buttress in WA!! Looks like a nice "sea of granite"!!

M and N Denyer

M and N Denyer - Sep 23, 2004 1:01 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Thanks. We got back into town on September 21st in the evening and then back to work the next day--didn't want to waste any vacation time recuperating; decided we could do that at work. =) The trip was incredible--especially Austria. We did long hikes for 11 of the 14 days we were there. We will definitely be going back--with climbing gear next time. We also each did a tandem paragliding trip. Wow!! We found out from our guide that there were some awesome mountaineering/climbing routes not too far away (in the general scheme of things) with fixed lines--now, how sweet is that?! It must be wonderful living in a country that respects climbing so much.



Don't be hard on yourself--you have skill AND an incredible reach. I remember Mark thinking 10a was probably a generous rating--more like 5.9 or 5.9+.



Thanks for the nice comments on the Green Giant Buttress page. It is a beautiful hunk of granite. You and Shirley would definitely enjoy it. The Dreamer route goes all the way to the summit and averages a rating of 5.8/5.9 and "Safe Sex" is a 5.8.



Any fun excursions/climbs/routes planned? Take Care and hello to Shirley and Blondie. --Natasha

rpc

rpc - Sep 23, 2004 2:22 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Nice! Paragliding.....do I detect the beginnings of a new hobby for you guys :) ?



....yeah, I know - if that thing was a .10a, then a few others deserve to be called ".11"



In terms of planned outings....the nasty weather (and snow) kind of changed much of what we were daydreaming about. Now we're prepping for a family visit so no climbing for 3 weeks.

Take care.

radek

M and N Denyer

M and N Denyer - Sep 23, 2004 2:42 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

If there was a suitable place to do it, it would definitely be a hobby we would want to take up. Course, we have our hands full with all the hobbies as is.



Wow, three weeks is a long time. Hope all goes well. I am sure you will find plenty of ways keep everyone busy!--Natasha

rpc

rpc - Sep 23, 2004 6:42 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Do I have the right sport in mind here:



Oregon?



:)

M and N Denyer

M and N Denyer - Sep 24, 2004 10:33 am - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Actually, you are thinking of hanggliding. We did paragliding:



http://www.madmikekung.com/index.htm?acro_news_world_games_biking_engl.htm~content



(click on "gallery"; hopefully this link works).



Lots of fun. Hope you get up to something fun this weekend. Looks like the weather is going to hold.

rpc

rpc - Sep 24, 2004 1:33 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Hey Natasha,

NICE - very impressive stuff!

The equipment is probably pretty $$$-icey? If you DO get into it, do you have to go all out right away equipment-wise or are there places that you rent from say??

M and N Denyer

M and N Denyer - Sep 24, 2004 2:24 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

I really have no idea. I figure it would be comparable to trying to rent climbing gear--not really a posibility due to liability reasons. Actually, I am not sure I would want to rent gear anyway, for the same reasons.

Martin Cash

Martin Cash - Jan 28, 2005 6:03 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

Damn, that first pitch looks sweet!



rpc

rpc - Jan 28, 2005 6:39 pm - Hasn't voted

Re: Glad to hear you did "Thin Air" . . . .

I saw this pic. before. It makes the finger crack look a lot better than it actually is IMO. The crack pretty much starts where her left hand is and ends just out of camera's view. It's a thin face climb and if I recall you could only get like one (2 maybe?) finger jams before it was over (above you pull an easy "roof" and it's over). There's also a cool picture of this woman leading New Testament (same website I think).

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